Using Facebook Pages

Before you set up a Facebook account for your group, read the Getting Started page and answer the questions we've outlined. We'll wait here...

OK. Common practice for Facebook is to create a Page for your organization (your club, department, office, etc.), rather than create a private or even public group. We repeat, create a Page rather than a group or, worse, a personal account.

Groups serve a different purpose and it is against Facebook policy to use a personal account for a business or organization. (To explain what we mean, an example would be creating a Facebook account with Elizabethtown as the first name and College as the last name; before Pages existed, this was how people 'got around' creating a page.)

Remember to use Elizabethtown College or E-town College in your Page name. This is crucial.

Note: to create a page, it must be tied to someone's personal account; herein lays one of the problems with organizations that will have leadership turnover. (Tip: create a "dummy" personal account to get around this so it is not tied to an actual person--this prevents being stuck with a page no one can access.)

Choose your page administrators wisely. And remember to remove graduating students or departing members from the administration panel of the account.

Once your page is created, suggest it to friends to "like." If people have to send a friend request to your page, you've created a personal account. You MUST create a business page in order to be "liked."

As of this writing, you need 25 followers to claim your short Facebook URL, otherwise, you will have a very, very long address filled with numbers. Once you have your short URL, you can easily promote your Facebook page on printed materials.

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